1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of silk screen printing on fabric, and, more particularly, to a method of silk screen printing by applying a high-density ink to fabric used to form the visor of a cap.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Silk screen printing is a common technique used to print designs (e.g., images, words, letters, or numbers) on a fabric such as on a shirt or a cap. Typical silk screen printing techniques require the target fabric to be stretched flat in order to receive the ink design via a flat panel silk screen. For this reason, a fabric having a curved or non-flat surface cannot readily be used to receive a design using typical flat panel silk screen printing equipment.
The visor of a cap—particularly a baseball cap—is rigid and curved. Due to the non-flat shape of the visor, it cannot be run through on a typical silk screen printing machine and thus cannot receive a design using flat panel silk screen equipment.
Furthermore, the conventional inks used in silk screen printing operations are particularly susceptible to everyday wear and tear. This poses a particular problem for silk screen ink designs on cap visors. The visor area of the cap is frequently gripped by the wearer when putting on, adjusting, or taking off the cap. Thus, the visor area experiences a significant amount of wear and tear during normal use. Since conventional silk screen printing inks are not sufficiently durable to withstand the wear and tear that the visor area of a cap experiences, the ink will eventually wear off of the visor during normal handling of the cap by the wearer.
For these reasons, an embroidery technique is commonly used to apply a design to the visor area of a cap. However, the embroidery technique fails to yield designs with the quality and detail achievable through using silk screen printing techniques. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a method for printing a design on the visor of a cap using a typical flat panel silk screen printing apparatus and a durable ink that can withstand the wear and tear that the visor area of a cap experiences. This novel and useful result has been achieved by the present invention.